Pomeranian Goose Breed Thread

[1MrsMagoo]

Those of you with Facebook accounts can ask to join the Pomeranian, and Waterfowl Fanciers groups on there: Both maintain breeder directories.

Also, if you go to this page http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_dis_spec/poultry/participants.shtml

and click your state, it will pull up a list of all NPIP breeders in your state. Last time I checked, I think the entire country was available through the Texas link.

Then you need to do an Adobe PDF search for the "product codes" associated with Pomeranian geese:Y14; Y73; and Y74. Their aren't many NPIP Pom breeders, but this will find every one of them for you.

Good luck everyone!

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Whoa! How do you make everything a different color?

You can use the A with the underline button above. It is the Second one on the left!

 

[gardengoats11]

you may be able to identify by pattern especially on the head and neck. The pattern you see now will be their pattern.

 

[livininbrazil]

Thank you for all the info! So far she has slate blue eyes, not sure it they change as they get older. But anywho, I really appreciate you taking the time to educate me

No probs. We all want to know what we have in our mixed bucket, but sometimes it´s impossible to tell until they´re a lot bigger. (size, carriage, etc) The blue eyes should get a little lighter as she grows.

 

[livininbrazil]

Sorry I didn't see this sooner- I was so worried about this girl I gave her her own thread.
I'm in Nova Scotia, Canada. My understanding is that Pomeranian's are extremely uncommon- but someone did bring a small flock into my province, so it's possible this lovely girl is one of those birds. I don't know, and can't really find any info. She is beautiful though- not as large as the white male. They were a rescue of sorts- the owner has to have a foot amputated and had to disperse his flock quickly. So, I took his 5 geese.
The food in her container was just "Flight Conditioner" pellets, which is a duck, goose, turkey, game bird feed offered by our local Purina dealer. I tried all different things and she wouldn't eat anything--but she's now up and about and eating well. She is thin-- had survived on chicken-scratch and bread apparently...we don't feed bread to waterfowl.
Her husband is a HUGE brute- I'm guessing Embden, and the three younger ones are also pure white. I was hoping for some type of auto-sexing gene, but I'm 95% sure one of the white offspring is a female, so that shoots the hypothesis down. I was hoping my three not related crossbreds were 2 females and one male- but the one I was hopeful is female- climbed on this this saddleback goose today, and did a teenager's interpretation of sex--well, tried. Had the wrong parts in the wrong places...
While I completely understand chicken behavior, and pretty much get duck behavior- geese are totally novel to me. So maybe that was just a dominance thing? This poor lady is pretty low down the pecking order, so we'll have to sort that out before spring. I keep my 3 imprinted "babies" in a different barn, as I don't want them picked on or losing their trust- they still think I'm Mom, and I'm happy with that. Want them to always be special.

Hi cv, just out of interest, my original 3 imprinted geese live with my other geese. They´ve stayed very tame, still my babies. Also, mounting doesn´t mean a lot as regards sex... they all do it, regardless of whether male or female. I have both chickens and ducks here, too, but my geese are by far my favourite.
As regards the auto-sexing thing, it is possible to have a white female, but it´s not common. And the white gene in the Embden isn´t the same as the dilute gene in the auto-sexing, of course. A couple of generations along the line, you might have some interesting pieds, depending on who breeds with whom.
Maybe she is one of the descendants of the flock you said about. The smaller size may be because of it being a closed flock, and lost the size of the Poms, or maybe she´s cross-bred, and has the spot gene. Nice bird, anyway, glad she´s fine now.

 

[cvamoca]

Took the babies (not poms, just cute Chinese/Embden crosses) for a walk today around our "block". Such sweet things. It was probably 1/2 mile. While I love my chickens and have had some close relationships with many of them, these little geese are like my children. Follow me everywhere. We saw an eagle, and they all hollered.

Oh yeah, Hubby and my dog also participated in the walk..
.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

My gozzies are three weeks old now. Sorry, I know that pictures are half the fun of forum chat threads; someday soon I will upload a pic to a post for the first time in my life! Since the weather has become milder, I moved them full-time into our chicken tractor. It's 5x8, but with five goslings in it constantly the poop load is a little heavy for my husband and his lawn to handle

. They sure are cute.

I tried vent sexing them last week and to my delight I found one definite male! I thought, I'm for sure doing this wrong if I can only find five females in this group. I'm sure there are more males. The one gosling I sexed as female is huge, the biggest of the bunch. I would be surprised if Hunkamunka doesn't turn out to be a boy. Their names are Hunkamunka, Sebastian, PeeWee, Pinky and Purpley. Guess which ones my three-year-old named?

These goslings were cheaper than any I've seen before, so I got them to raise for holiday feasts for my family. When local crossbreeds are selling for $15 a gosling, and these poms were $5 each, I'll take them all!! Love that grassfed meaty goodness. Anyway, my question: are Pomeranians so rare that, should any of these gozzies grow up to actually meet the SOP, I ought to keep/sell them as breeders, or just go ahead and eat them all? I'm halfway hoping they all grow up with bright orange beaks/feet so I don't have to make that decision. I kind of gave my word to a certain someone that we would definitely be butchering all five of these geese, and no, none of them would be overwintering in our backyard somewhere

.

Also, some of the bigger ones look to be developing a lobe already. Is this normal/to be expected, or am I seeing things?

You don't typically see pure Pomeranian goslings that cheap. I sell mine for $15 each from birth to 12 days of age (in years when I sell any young ones at all). Yes, Pomeranians are rare, the Buffs considerably more so than the Gray, but neither has sufficient numbers to make it off the Livestock Conservancy's critical list.

It seems early for any substantial lobe development at three weeks of age, however I can't rule it out.

As to the retain or digest question: I have never eaten one of my geese since I am SO attached to them. Now if we had eaten all the chickens, ducks, muscovy, and turkeys and faced with starvation, then yes I would....lol. I know other members who butcher and say they are delightful though. Anyway, how about a potential compromise?

You retain a pair or possible trio of birds if they are single lobed, have the right type, and decent markings. You can tell the "certain someone" that by doing so, you will not have to buy goslings in the future to meet your needs to butcher plus may have eggs or goslings to sell to supplement their feed. Considering that 80% of their diet is grass, when available, I find them to be one of the most affordable birds I raise.

Good luck and post pics of them if you'd like any critiques.

 

[kzane23]

And for those who didn't see that last post, Here is Buffling.

 

[Just Ducky10]

Two of our Pomeranian geese laid their first eggs today!

The one on the right is from Morgana, the one on the left is from Luna. (The top one is a jumbo duck egg for comparison)
Melody's the only one left who has to lay.

 

[newgosling]

here is my 5 day old saddleback Pomeranian gosling 95%chance female they told me I am picking up another one hopefully tomorrow I know she needs a mate I just couldn't pass her up that day can't wait to see what she grows up to be like she is a cry baby but when she lays on me she is all lovy dovey she will be getting a friend tomorrow so she isn't lonely anymore.